Vietnam sets up ASEAN offices

Vietnam sets up ASEAN offices

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam has set up two new government
organizations to coordinate its activities within the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a report said yesterday.

Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet ordered the establishment of a
National ASEAN Committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime
Minister Tran Duc Luong to organize policy, the official Vietnam
News Agency said.

The Foreign Ministry has also set up a National ASEAN
Secretariat and all ministries will be required to set up offices
that will be coordinated by the Government Office -- a central
ministry presided over by the premier, the report said.

Vietnam joined the association in July at a meeting of foreign
ministers in Brunei, becoming the seventh member of an
organization originally founded in 1967 out of fear of Hanoi's
ambitions in the region.

There were fears among the other members -- Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- that Vietnam
was not ready to join the group because of its poorly trained
bureaucracy.